Here's another list of highlights from IASSIST2016 which is focusing on the data revolution. For previous highlights, see here.

Infrastructure

For those of you with an interest in technical infrastructure, the University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur will showcase an early protype MMRepo (1 June, 3F), whose function is to store qualitative and quantitative data into one big data repository.

The UK Data Service will present the following panel "The CESSDA Technical Framework - what is it and why is it needed?", which elaborates how the CESSDA Research Infrastructure should have modern data curation techniques rooted in sophisticated IT capabilities at its core, in order to better serve its community.

If you have been wondering about the various operational components and the associated technology counterparts involved with running a data science repository, then the presentation by ICPSR is for you. Participants in that panel will leave with an understanding of how the Archonnex Architecture at ICPSR is strengthening the data services offered to new researchers and much more.

Data processing

Be sure to check out the aforementioned infrastructure offerings if you’re interested in data processing, but also check out a half-day workshop on 31 May, “Text Processing with Regular Expressions,” presented by Harrison Dekker, UC Berkeley, that will help you learn regular expression syntax and how to use it in R, Python, and on the command line. The workshop will be example-driven.

Data visualisation

If you are comfortable working with quantitative data and are familiar with the R tool for statistical computing and want to learn how to create a variety of visualisations, then the workshop by the University of Minnesota on 31 May is for you. It will introduce the logic behind ggplot2 and give participants hands-on experience creating data visualizations with this package. This session will also introduce participants to related tools for creating interactive graphics from this syntax.

Programming

If you’re interesting in programming there’s a full-day Intro to Python for Data Wrangling workshop on 31 May, led by Tim Dennis, UC San Diego, that will provide tools to use scientific notebooks in the cloud, write basic Python programs, integrate disparate csv files and more.

Also, the aforementioned Regular Expressions workshop also on 31 May will offer in-workshop opportunities to working with real data and perform representative data cleaning and validation operations in multiple languages.

Research data management

Get a behind-the-scenes look at data management and see how an organization such as the Odum Institute manages its archiving workflows, head to “Automating Archive Policy Enforcement using Dataverse and iRODS” on 31 May with presenters from the UNC Odom Institute, UNC Chapel Hill. ’Participants will see machine actionable rules in practice and be introduced to an environment where written policies can be expressed in ways an archive can automate their enforcement.

Another good half-day workshop, targeted to for people tasked with teaching good research data management practices to researchers is “Teaching Research Data Management Skills Using Resources and Scenarios Based on Real Data,” 31 May, with presenters from ICPSR, the UK Data Archive and FORS. The organisers of this workshop will showcase recent examples of how they have developed teaching resources for hands-on-training, and will talk about successes and failures in this regard.

Tools

If you’re just looking to add more resources to your data revolution toolbox, whether it’s metadata, teaching, data management, open and restricted access, or documentation, here’s a quick list of highlights:

At Creating GeoBlacklight Metadata: Leveraging Open Source Tools to Facilitate Metadata Genesis (31 May), presenters from New York University will provide hands-on experience in creating GeoBlacklight geospatial metadata, including demos on how to capture, export, and store GeoBlacklight metadata.

DDI Tools Demo (1 June). The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) is an international standard for describing statistical and social science data.

Metadata

Don’s miss IASSIST 2016’s offerings on metadata, which is the data about the data that makes finding and working with data easier to do. There are many offerings, with a quick list of highlights below:

Creating GeoBlacklight Metadata: Leveraging Open Source Tools to Facilitate Metadata Genesis (Half-day workshop, 31 May), with presenters from New York University

At Posters and Snacks on 2 June, Building A Metadata Portfolio For Cessda, with presenters from the Finnish Social Science Data Archive; GESIS – Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences; and UK Data Service

We are excited to have new members in IASSIST. IASSIST is a home for data services professionals across many disciplines: librarians, data archivists, open data proponents, data support staff, etc. For some, it is an organization where you don’t have to explain what you do because our members already understand. We get metadata, data support, data access issues, database challenges, the challenge of replication and so much more! Although we are a long-established organization, new members are the lifeblood of IASSIST! Networking is a great benefit of attending the IASSIST conference but the week quickly goes by and and it can be daunting to join a lively group like this. To get the most out of your membership, we encourage everyone to join the IASSIST mentorship program. Please answer the following questions so we can match mentors and mentees. We will try to match you with someone who has similar interests and experiences. If you know of anyone who will be participating that you would like to be matched with, please indicate below. Please sign up by Friday, May 13. Conference contact assignments for IASSIST will be emailed by the end of the day Tuesday, May 17.You can register in Google Forms https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1l1M58RqsGiamN2z1wPQwzCyqwdU9Z3ETMbnJoZzpPvY/viewform?c=0&w=1 If you have any questions, please contact Bobray Bordelon (bordelon@princeton.edu). Thank you for participating & see you in Bergen!

Part 1: Data sharing, new data sources and data protection

IASSIST is an international organisation of information technology and data services professionals which aims to provide support to research and teaching in the social sciences. It has over 300 members ranging from data archive staff and librarians to statistical agencies, government departments and non-profit organisations.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Embracing the ‘data revolution’: opportunities and challenges for research” and it is the 42nd of its kind, taking place every year. IASSIST2016 will take place in Bergen, Norway, from 31 May to 3 June, hosted by NSD- Norwegian Centre for Research Data.

Here is a first snapshot of what is there and why it is important.

Data sharing

If you have ever wondered whether data sharing is to the advantage of researchers, there will be a session led by Utrecht University Library exploring the matter. The first results of a survey which explores personal beliefs, intention and behaviour regarding the sharing of data will also be presented by GESIS. The relationship between data sharing and data citation, relatively overlooked until now, will then be addressed by the Australian Data Archive.

If you are interested in how a data journal could incentivise replications in economics, you should think about attending a session by ZBW Leibniz Information Centre for Economics which will present some studies describing the outcome of replication attempts and discuss the meaning of failed replications in economics.

GESIS will then look into improving research data sharing by addressing different scholarly target groups such as individual researchers, academic institutions, or scientific journals, all of which place diverse demands on a data sharing tool. They will focus on the tools offered by GESIS as well as a joint tool, “SowiDataNet”, offered together with the Social Science Centre Berlin, the German Institute for Economic Research, and the German National Library of Economic.

The UKDA and UKDS will present a paper which seeks to explore the role that case studies of research can play in regard to effective data sharing, reuse and impact.

The Data Archive in Finland (FSD) will also be presented as a case study of an archive that is broadening its services to the health sciences and humanities, disciplines in which data sharing practices have not yet been established.

If you’d like to know more about data accessibility, which is being required by journals and mandated by government funders, join a diverse group of open data experts as IASSIST dives into open data dialogue that includes presentations on Open Data and Citizen Empowerment and 101 Cool Things to do with Open Data as part of the “Opening up on open data workshop.” Presenters will be from archives from across the globe.

New data sources

A talk entitled “Data science: The future of social science?” byUKDA will introduce its conceptual and technical work in developing a big data platform for social science and outline preliminary findings from work using energy data.

If you have been wondering about the role of social media data in the academic environment, the session by the University of California will include an overview of the social media data landscape and the Crimson Hexagon product.

The three Vs of big data, volume, variety and velocity, are being explored in the “Hybrid Data Lake” being built by UKDA using the Universal Decimal Classification platform and expanding “topics” search while using big data management. Find out more about it as well as possible future applications.

Data protection

If you follow data protection issues, the panel on “Data protection: legal and ethical reviews” is for you, starting off with a presentation of the Administrative Data Research Network's (ADRN) Citizen's Panel, which look at public concerns about research using administrative data, the content of which is both personal and confidential. The ADRN was set up as part of the UK Government’s Big Data initiative as a UK-wide partnership between universities, government bodies, national statistics authorities and the wider research community.

The next ADRN presentation within this session will outline their application process and the role of the Approvals Panel in relation to ethical review. The aim is “to expand the discussion towards a broader reflection on the ethical dilemmas that administrative data pose”, as well as present some steps taken to address these difficulties.

NSD will then present the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), recently adopted at EU level, and explain how it will affect data collection, data use, data preservation and data sharing. If you have been wondering how the regulation will influence the possibilities for processing personal data for research purposes, or how personal data are defined, what conditions apply to an informed consent, or in which cases it is legal and ethical to conduct research without the consent of the data subjects, this presentation is for you.

The big picture

Wednesday 1 June will kick-off with a plenary entitled “Data for decision-makers: Old practice - new challenges” by Gudmund Hernes, the current president of the International Social Science Council and Norway’s former Minister of Education and Research 1990-95, and Minister of Health 1995-97.

The third day of the conference (2 June) will begin with a plenary - “Embracing the ‘Data Revolution’: Opportunities and Challenges for Research’ or ‘What you need to know about the data landscape to keep up to date”, by Matthew Woollard, Director of the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex and Director of the UK Data Service.

If you want to know more about the three European projects under the framework of the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Commission that CESSDA is involved in, one on big data (Big Data Europe - Empowering Communities with Data Technologies), another on - strengthening and widening the European infrastructure for social science data archives (CESSDA SaW) and a third on synergies for Europe's Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences (SERISS), this panel is for you.

IASSIST Quarterly

Special issue: A pioneer data librarianWelcome
to the special volume of the IASSIST Quarterly (IQ (37):1-4, 2013).
This special issue started as exchange of ideas between Libbie
Stephenson and Margaret Adams to collect